Cuba's privately-owned restaurants, the "paladares" that have proliferated under President Raul Castro's economic reforms, will take part for the first time in Cuba's biggest culinary festival. The Varadero Gourmet Festival, to be held from June 19-21 in a spa 85 miles (140 kilometers) east of Havana, "seeks to position Cuba as a destination for quality food service,' organizer Hugo Capote told AFP Friday. Allowing privately-run eateries to compete against the Communist nation's state-run restaurants "will enrich the Cuban tourist product," he said.

HAVANA - Two British businessmen targeted in a corruption probe in Cuba went on trial Thursday, as authorities continue to press a crackdown on graft that has caught up several other foreigners and dozens of islanders. A court official identified suspects Amado Fakhre, a British citizen of Lebanese origin who was executive director of Coral Capital Group, and fellow Briton Stephen Purvis, the investment firm's chief of operations. A half-dozen Cubans were also being tried in the case.

HAVANA - The meeting on a sunny Havana square was a little bit revolutionary for Cuba's revolution. And for U.S. diplomacy as well. Dozens of young bloggers and tweeters gathered to talk about their place in a socialist society whose leaders have referred to the Internet as "a wild colt" to be tamed and make access difficult for all but a few.

Pelicans and their prey are back in Havana Bay in a sign that efforts to clean up the historic and once splendid port of the Cuban capital are paying off. "They disappeared long ago but because of the cleanup the fish have returned -- and therefore so have the pelicans," said fisherman Eduardo Lozano who spends every day out on the sheltered expanse of water.